Bowling Green State University Athletics
Paul Talkington: 2007 BGSU Hall of Fame Inductee
September 17, 2007 | Men's Cross Country
Sept. 17, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University Athletic Hall of Fame welcomes seven new members this weekend (Sept. 21-22). The 2007 class will be inducted during a formal dinner on the BGSU campus.
The Class of 2007 includes Antonio Daniels '97 (men's basketball), Wade Diefenthaler '59 (baseball), Talita (Scott) Braddix '94 (women's basketball), Charles Simpson (gymnastics coach), Tom Stubbs '49 (swimming and diving), Paul Talkington '69 (men's cross country and track) and Bernard White (football).
The official induction ceremony will take place Friday (Sept. 21) in the grand ballroom of BGSU's Bowen-Thompson Student Union. The social hour begins at 6:00 p.m., with dinner served at 7:00 p.m. and the program starting shortly thereafter.
In addition to the induction ceremony, the class will be introduced at halftime of Saturday's (Sept. 22) BGSU-Temple football game at Doyt Perry Stadium. The game begins at noon and is designated at Hall of Fame Day.
Tickets for the Sept. 21 dinner are $35 ($30 for Varsity BG members), and advanced reservations are required. Tickets can be reserved by calling the Falcon Club office at (419) 372-7100. Football game tickets can be purchased through the ticket office by phone, at 1-877-BGSUTICKET, or on the web at BGSUFalcons.com.
The public is invited to attend the induction dinner.
The following is the sixth of a seven-part series that takes a brief look at this year's inductees...
Paul Talkington, Jr. (Men's Cross Country and Track, 1966-1969)
Paul Talkington, a native of Bergholz, Ohio, earned three letters in both track (1967 through `69) and cross country (1966 through `68) during his Falcon career. He set no fewer than 14 school records in track while at BGSU. Talkington was the MAC Champion and record holder in the six mile run, while also earning All-Ohio honors. Additionally, he was the record holder in the three mile run. As a sophomore in the 1966-67 campaign, he was named the Most Improved Runner on both the cross-country and track teams, and he was the Most Valuable Player on the 1968 track team. He also earned national AAU All-American honors six times.
Talkington ran in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in both 1972 and 1976, and has competed in a veritable plethora of races, winning hundreds of road-races.
Additionally, he has coached a combined 56 seasons of track and cross country. In 1972, he went to Malone College in Canton, Ohio, where he was an assistant coach of the cross country and track team for five seasons. He coached at Faircrest Junior High in Canton for several years, and moved to Canton South H.S. in 1979, where he had a long and storied coaching career, guiding the boys and girls teams in both cross country and track. Talkington was a two-time Northeastern Buckeye Conference Coach of the Year, and was named the Stark County Coach of the Year in 1991.
In addition to his coaching duties, Talkington also spent 30 years teaching science in the Canton Local School District before retiring in June of 2000. He and his wife of over 37 years, Diane, reside in Carrollton, Ohio, and have four children; Tonya, Christina, Kimberly and Paul III.
The 2007 class of inductees, the 44th class in history, brings membership in the Athletics Hall of Fame to 206. The 1983-84 national championship hockey team is also enshrined in the Hall.
